WEST COVINA >> West Covina’s Bainbridge Club once had a wait list with dozens of families vying for membership, but now the decades-old swim club struggles with maintaining members, reporting its finances and following its own bylaws. State and federal agencies list the club, which is celebrating its 55th year this month, as a suspended corporation and a suspended tax-exempt nonprofit organization for the past three years.

West Covina officials found the Bainbridge Club never obtained a business license in the city because of a nonprofit waiver it received from City Council in 1969. That waiver may now become void, according to City Manager Christopher Chung.

“Now they’re required to have a business license once they lost that nonprofit status,” Chung said. “We will send out notices now that we’re aware of that.”

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health also shuttered the pool twice, in 2011 and 2012, because of cloudy water and low chlorine counts, according to Bernard Franklin, head of the county pool inspection program. An inspection in July found only signage problems.

The swim club requires a membership, but it also rents its hall for private parties for both members and nonmembers. Membership costs from $30 to $45 per month, depending on the size of the family. A nonmember rental of the hall costs $1,100 for 7½ hours, the website states. The club has one or two rentals per month, according to a board member.

The club’s bylaws describe the property at the corner of Bainbridge Road and California Avenue as “used exclusively for pleasure, recreation and other nonprofitable purposes.” However, the IRS automatically revoked its tax-exempt nonprofit status in November 2010 for failure to file a required Form 990, which reports a nonprofit’s annual revenues and expenditures.

A spreadsheet of active California nonprofits released by the IRS in June does not include the Bainbridge Club.

The club lost its corporation status the same year for failing to pay the state’s franchise tax board $50 in 2008 and failing to file an updated statement of information with the Secretary of State. The club updated its statement on July 19, according to a spokesperson from the Secretary of State’s Office, but the issue with the franchise tax board still remains, five years later.

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A suspended business loses its “rights, powers and privileges to conduct business in California,” according to the Franchise Tax Board’s website. The Bainbridge Club has no legal right to its name, to enforce its contracts or to defend against lawsuits because of its suspended status.

The club’s bylaws also require yearly elections, but not a single one took place in the past 20 years, according to member Mike Sullivan, who the board kicked out in June. The board revoked Sullivan’s membership in June after Sullivan got into an argument with two board members, but a majority of the general membership voted to overturn the decision in July.

Sullivan said the board also has not released copies of its finances for years, despite the bylaws requiring a financial report and an independent three-member auditing committee every year.

The board wants to remedy the club’s problems, according to board president Ole Jensen, but Jensen and other club members seemed to believe the only issue was with their nonprofit status.

“We’re in the process of getting reinstated, that was an oversight,” Jensen said. A representative speaking on Jensen’s behalf said the error came from an incorrectly delivered letter and is in the process of getting fixed. She could not explain why the three suspensions came separately from the Secretary of State’s Office, the Franchise Tax Board and the IRS.

Jensen admitted the club faces financial problems but said its members has kept it going, some even loaning the club money to pay bills.

“It’s been a labor of love for some of us in the club that don’t want to see it go down,” he said.

The club’s membership dwindled from 80 to 90 member families in 1975 when Jensen joined to about 23now.

“Membership continually went down until it got to the point where we could not handle our monthly payments with just club dues,” he said.

The board plans to have elections in September, Jensen said. He said would give up his seat on the board if it meant the club could move forward.

“We’re getting new blood in there,” Jensen said. “We’re going to be updating our bylaws, which are way outdated. We’re going to get some fundraising going. We’re going to get some membership drives going. I think we’re on the paths to getting the club back where it should be.”

Sullivan agreed that the club seems ready to move in a positive direction.

“There is this whole new energy here now,” Sullivan said.

Members have started attending meetings, asking questions and demanding documents, Sullivan said.

“It could be like a brand-new day,” Sullivan said. “I’m hoping that this going to be a resurgence of the club. It’s been like a beautiful little oasis for us.”